The year 2003

Also this year many games were about to be released. Some interesting, some dead on arrival. We opened clans for some of those games too, but unfortunately the game was a disappointment and the clan did not last long.The member-administration is fully automated and because of our third anniversary we also made plans for a new design of our website.

Generals, (30 Oct 2002 announced), released 12 Feb 2003

Although announced to be released worldwide by 30 Oct 2002, it took untill 12 Feb 2003 before the game hit the shelves. What's all about it? Well in short it is:

"Command & Conquer™ Generals puts your trigger finger on the pulse of modern warfare. Choose a General in control of massive armies of bleeding-edge military weaponry across a globe teetering on the brink of Armageddon. Command either the mighty U.S. Army, the Chinese war machine or the resourceful Global Liberation Army, each packed with high-tech arsenals ready to deliver unprecedented firepower on land or in the skies. Prepare your forces, Commander... it's time to engage in the next generation of 3D real-time strategy -- Command & Conquer Generals."

It was playable, but not really a hit; rumors were already speaking about an expansion pack that would solve the problems and add new content.

Medal of Honor Allied Assault - 4 April 2003

"In Medal of Honor Allied Assault, you are Lt. Mike Powell, member of the famed 1st Ranger Battalion. Following your recruitment by the OSS, you’ll battle through over 20 challenging levels, based on historical military campaigns of World War II."

We had numerous requests to support the game MoHAA. Although about 10 men joined the game, only 4 are playing it regularly now. The players are fighting their ranks on the ClanBase 2on2 ladder.

Logo contest, April 2003

On our website and forum we announced to open a competition for a new logo design and nice prices to win.
Requirements:

the name of our clan must be part of the design

it must be clear that we are a gaming clan

must be usable on our (new) website and messageboard

preferably the design should be printable on letters, cards, etc

preferably the design should printable on mousemats, cups, t-shirts, etc.,

the new design may not contain copyrighted materials owned by others than the new designer

all used images, in whole or partially, have to be created by the submitter or have an explicit written letter of the copyright-holder that the image may be used royalty free by FDNL without any limitation

all entrances will become the ownership of FDNL

by submitting the designer grants FDNL an exclusive royalty free license to use or modify the design to its own descretion without any limitation

all copyrights are implicitly transfered to FDNL

in case of an overwhelming number of entrances, there will be several rounds to make the final selection

We received so many entrances, that we needed three rounds:

all designs that did not meet the criteria were dropped

the six best were selected

the winner and runner-ups were selected

sent in by: ice4002

sent in by: PowerGraphics

sent in by: BigBrother

The winners and their prices were made public in the upcoming Lan-party event (see topic below)

All winners received a top-of-the-line video graphics card !
Image 1 and 2 will be used for all but the website and forums; image 3 will be used for the new website and messageboard (re: the now discontinued FDNL messageboard).

Second LAN-party - 27 April 2003

Sjappie did it again, he succeeded in organizing our second lan-party at TGS Rotterdam. We arranged three tournaments for the major games we play. The winners of each tournament were very happy with their prizes: icemat, game and a special attention sponsored by Jeroen Kraak, the CEO of TGS.:

Tiberian Sun: Imurderu

Counter-Strike: ??

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Fsreaper

Also the announcement of the winners of our logo contest was made (see previous topic for details).

RtCW:Enemy Territory - 26 June 2003

A sequel to the famous and well known Return to Castle Wolfenstein. And the best: totally free of charge.

"You are B.J. Blaskowicz, a highly devoted Army Ranger recruted into the Office of Secret Actions (ASA), tasked with escaping and then returning to Catle Wolfenstein in an attempt to thwart Heinrich's occult and genetic experiments. Himmler believes himself to be the reincarnation of a 10th century dark prince, Henry the Fowler, also know as Heinrich. Through genetic engineering and harnessing of occult powers, Himmler hopes to raise an unstoppable army to level the Allies once and for all".

The game is so attractive that we decided to open up a second clan.

Hattrick - 17 July 2003

Hattrick is an online soccer game where you trade players and coach your team in competition with tens of thousands of simultaneous opponents from all over the world. Hattrick is free of charge. You run your team using a web browser. A few times each week, matches will be played. You may log in at any time to check the status of your team, issue orders for training, trade players on the transfer list - or just have a chat with the other Hattrick users. Hattrick never ends. When you win your league you may qualify for promotion to a higher league in the next season (16 weeks). Ready? Kick-off !!

New Ranking- and Decoration system introduced - 23 Sep 2003

Alot of requests were mailed to introduce a ranking and decorating system for our warriors in FDNL. A small group kept themselves busy to find out how to do so. Decisions were made to use the USA military ranking system and adapt it for our needs: rankings are based on length of membership and function (warleader, coleader, etc).The same was done for the decorations. They were based on the USA-system. To prevent legal issues, the Ranking Committee thought it wise to have a system of our own. H0lland, our clanfounder, started designing new medals. The majority of the decorations are now FDNL-design. Others will follow soon.

Generals: Zero Hour, 25 sep 2003

The new expansion pack is released and should attrack more players to the battlefields:

"Prepare to unleash the absolute latest in modern weapons technology against the world's most powerful Generals in Command & Conquer™ Generals Zero Hour. In the next era of military strategy and might, you'll need to command a more technologically advanced arsenal to defeat new, more powerful enemies. The first expansion pack for the critically acclaimed Command & Conquer™ Generals challenges players to square off against the world's most elite commanders for battlefield domination. Even the most experienced C&C Generals veteran must learn new strategies and tactics to take full advantage of -- and learn to defend against -- the next generation of the world's most lethal weapons. With new units, structures, and upgrades, as well as the all-new Generals Challenge Mode, Zero Hour delivers all the firepower you'll need in your quest to become the ultimate modern warfare General. "

All new weather effects, like rain and snow, further immerse you in a more realistic combat environment.

First game-server installed - 6 Oct 2003

A dream came thru: In a very short time we developped great plans and thanks to our major sponsor BigBr0thr. we were able today to install our first public game-server !!

Currently it supports:

Counter Strike 1.5

Counter Strike 1.6

RtCW

RtCW:ET

Call of Duty

Ventrilo

New Messageboard avatar - 20 Oct 2003

Our new Ranking and Decoration System is expanded to supply each member with an automatically updated avatar on our message board showing his current rank and position in our clan.

2nd game-server installed - 24 Oct 2003

A next step in the server-area. Today we went installing a second game-server for our clan, sponsored again by our major sponsor BigBr0thr!!It will be used primararly for playing wars. Currently it supports:

Counter Strike 1.6 (2 servers)

RtCW

RtCW:ET

Third LAN-party - 15 Nov 2003

Our third LAN-party was at The Game Syndicate (TGS), Rotterdam, again. Great facilities, great staff, especially their new deli is worth paying a visit. A lanparty is a good place to get to know eachother better and our partymanagers love to arrange such a happening. Wanna see some snapshots? Pay a visit to our "Foto album"The tournament again was very exiting; the winners:

Tib Sun: DeHulk

CS: Rubber112

RtCW: Goodi3

And of course we owe you the winner of the "Mr. Fruit"-contest: Dewin4fd; with a very creative photo. His prize? All our female members showed up in wet t-shirt just for him.

New news database - 29 Nov 2003

The old news script got many flaws and at weird moments it destroyed the complete database, causing the webpages to be wrongly formatted.A new system was develloped and we also took advantage of the opportunity to extend the system making it possible to receive comments on every newstopic.Our members are happy, so we are happy :)